So, my kids and I decided to rewatch the videos now that we've seen the new one. We got through 4 out of 5 over the weekend, which was pretty good considering there was also studying for finals (the big one), going on a shabbaton (the middle one), doing a math fair project (the little one), and fanfic/laundry/housework (me). After some consideration, we decided to start with A New Hope and watch them in the order they were made, rather than in numerical order. Some observations (I'm cutting for length and also for spoilers for ROTS, although I doubt anyone reading this hasn't seen it yet):

* We really saw the connections among the different ones so much more clearly seeing them like that. The parallels between Anakin and Luke are really in sharp relief when you see them one after another. Things like Luke's possibly prophetic dreams and Anakin's, the way they're both so impatient, their skills - all stand out more. We all kept saying "He's his father's son."

* A lot of stuff is just so much more poignant when you know things. The knowing glance between Beru and Owen, the way Obiwan talks about Anakin, the first time you hear "I have a bad feeling about this" - they all affected me so much more now.

* We spotted some mistakes and inconsistencies we hadn't noticed before. I am of the opinion that Leia remembering her mother as "beautiful, kind and sad" is not a mistake - I think she's talking about Bail's first wife and doesn't know that Padme was her original mother. But other things were wrong, I believe: - Old Ben tells Luke that no one has called him Obi-wan "since before you were born." He was clearly still Obi-wan at the time of Luke's and Leia's birth in ROTS - Obi-wan calls Vader "Darth" as if he's using a given name at one point. - Omission of Qui-Gon's name really stands out in the original trilogy. It's not so much that Obi-wan talks about having been taught by Yoda. He says it in a way that Yoda could be one of many teachers. He doesn't talk about the padawan system at all. But if he's been hanging out in the desert with Qui-Gon all that time it just seems like such a weird lapse to never say anything to Luke about him at all. It really felt like he was invented later (and I assume he was).

* The bar scene and the music scene entertaining Jabba the Hutt are every bit as wonderful as I remembered.

* We all loved the puppets, and felt like CGI in the newer movies just isn't as good.

* We're all itching to go on the Star Tours ride again at Disney World after rewatching.

* The whole "Leia as Sex Slave to Jabba the Hutt" bit was just downright weird. I think I probably always thought so, but there was something about my 10-year-old saying "Why is she wearing that and what does he want to do with her?" that made it clearer.

Anyway, we had a great time and it was a fun thing to share with my kids.

In other Star Wars news, Zara (aforementioned 10-year-old) and I watched this:

I do get what you mean about using "Darth" as a title, but it didn't feel like that to me. It seemed like kind of an intimate moment, as if he were switching to first names in recognition of the time when they were teacher and student. But maybe I imagined that...

I think we last watched in the wake of TPM, so about the same timing. The thing we all said about ROTS was that it ties the whole series together so well. And I think we felt that as we watched the old ones.

I just realized you wrote "I haven't rewatched 4-6 in years" but I read "I haven't rewatched in 4-6 years." So, if my first reply made no sense, that's why. I'm really going to work on that Reading for Meaning thing.

I was contemplating a "Star Wars"-a-thon soon, and I was thinking that it made sense somehow to watch them in the order 4-6, 1-3, so it's nice that's borne out by your viewing. I agree with your observations. I was wondering if Lucas would dub out the "Darth" thing, but I figure there is also some sentimental value to be had. Qui-Gon was definitely thought up later, which is a shame, especially in terms of the cavalier way the whole "joining with the Force" thing was described in Episode III.

But hey, it's a wonderful part of our mythology, and the parallels are amazing. Indeed, I was thinking that the original trilogy was about Luke (after all, it was called "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker", the prequel trilogy was about Anakin, but in some ways, the whole thing is about Obi-Wan too. He's the glue for the whole story. Kind of nice.

I think Zara's right about the sex slave bit. There are other ways that George could have got Carrie in a skimpy outfit if that's what he wanted!

I was wondering if Lucas would dub out the "Darth" thing, but I figure there is also some sentimental value to be had.

Yk, he may have changed it on later copies - I wouldn't know. Somebody kattahj? was telling me recently that the new DVD copies of the original trilogy have Hayden Whosit superimposed at the end to be Anakin. I bought my VHS copies long ago in a galaxy far far away, so I can't tell you what has changed.

I agree that Obi-Wan is the glue. And boy did I appreciate Ewan McGregor more after seeing these again! I kept saying of ROTS that he really knew how to bridge the performances and be the middle-aged man young Obi-Wan had become at the same time as he was the man who would age into Old Ben. But I felt that even more after seeing Alec Guiness again.

Btw, I'm really enjoying sharing vids with Zara. Your kids are older, so it might not be so much of an issue, but some of my fannish activities just aren't appropriate to share and she totally wants to be involved in everything. So, it's nice to watch vids together and to read fanfic that we can both enjoy. Her bedtime story last night was:

No, the line stands as it is. We got the super-duper versions when they came out and Lucas didn't touch it. As for Hayden appearing at the end instead of Sebastian Shaw, it's so stupid. I could imagine Luke thinking: WTF? Who's that young guy? Because he never saw his father as a young man. I mean, why not have Obi-Wan as Ewan instead of Alec? Answer: it doesn't make sense, because Luke only knows Obi-Wan as Alec. So the Hayden thing really perplexes me.

I think Ewan did a masterful job of making the transition. I wasn't sure at first, but my second and third viewings of ROTS tell me that he had to be understated, he had to appear to be the man who would become Old Ben, and he had some of the most excreable dialogue ever, second only to what they fed poor Natalie Portman as Padme. While he will never get an award for it, I really think both Ewan and Hayden took big risks, because theirs are the ultimate role to be typecast in. I do wonder if Hayden will truly escape Vader. I don't have any such doubts for Ewan.

I think it's wonderful that your kids want to share in your interests. As you've found, there are many ways to include Zara and inspire her own creativity and imagination.

My girls don't know I write slash. On reflection, over the years I have spent so much time making the focus all about them, there are a number of things they don't know about me. For instance, they don't know that I have a dissociative condition (because I refuse to call it disorder *grins*). Over time, I hope to share more of me with them, because I think there is a lot of enrichment to be had from seeing some of your parent's inner lives. My parents were relative strangers to me, and I see now I don't want to make that mistake with our girls.

One day, I'll tell them about the slash too. I can just imagine the faces and groans of "Ewwwwww!" ROTFL.

My kids know I write slash. I don't know they actually know the term "slash," although I've used it with them. I think the term kind of hasn't stuck with them. Maybe because I tend towards a somewhat academic-sounding definition of slash: fanfiction in which two male characters who are portrayed as heterosexual or whose sexuality is not explored in the source text are shown to be having a (usually clandestine) sexual or romantic in the fanfic.

Anyway, they know I write fanfic and that there are gay characters and that that's part of what interests me about it. They've all read the article that was in the Advocate, where I talk about liking the mutant/gay parallels in writing X-Men fanfic. They also know there's sex in the stories, because I say things like "Now they have sex and I'm going to skip over that part" when I read them excerpts. I do occasionally wonder what people think on the bus when I say something like that while reading to my daughter en route to school. But I don't wonder that much :-).